Electrical Unbalance

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OBONE

Member
Location
York Region
Occupation
Electrician
Hi. I was called to a residence regarding voltage spikes within the house. The readings vary but for the most part when the fridge or other appliances come on the voltage spikes on one leg to 180 volts and the other leg drops sometimes as low as 70 volts.
When the system is "normal" readings are good at 125 volts and 247 volts . Is this a grounding issue?
 
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OBONE

Member
Location
York Region
Occupation
Electrician
Thanks for your input. The street side seems to be fine it's something within the residence itself. Forgot to mention there's 5 to 6 amps on the ground wire and zero amps on the neutral.
 
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winnie

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Occupation
Electric motor research
Sounds to me like an open neutral where the ground goes to a common metal water pipe. Neutral current is flowing on the ground piping.

Improving the ground might help, in the sense that it would better mask the problem. The solution is to find the open neutral.

Jon
 
don_resqcapt19

don_resqcapt19

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Location
Illinois
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retired electrician
OBONE said:
Thanks for your input. The street side seems to be fine it's something within the residence itself. Forgot to mention there's 5 to 6 amps on the ground wire and zero amps on the neutral.
Click to expand...
you need to do voltage checks with a large load connected first from one leg to neutral and then connected from the other leg to neutral. You should do this with all of the breakers off except the one powering the test load....something like a 1500 watt heater is a good test load.
 
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OBONE

Member
Location
York Region
Occupation
Electrician
winnie said:
Sounds to me like an open neutral where the ground goes to a common metal water pipe. Neutral current is flowing on the ground piping.

Improving the ground might help, in the sense that it would better mask the problem. The solution is to find the open neutral.

Jon
Click to expand...
Tks everyone. I checked the grounding there's no ground rod connection . Looks like it was disconnected during renovations.
I'll install a new rod , hopefully this solves the issue.
 
roger

roger

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Location
Fl
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Retired Electrician
A new rod(s) will not solve the issue. Ground (earth) is not part of the circuitry.
 
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OBONE

Member
Location
York Region
Occupation
Electrician
Tks . The rods should be installed as there is no incoming town water supply, there's a well on the property for water supply.
I can see this taking some time to locate the open neutral problem.
 
infinity

infinity

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Location
New Jersey
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Journeyman Electrician
OBONE said:
Tks everyone. I checked the grounding there's no ground rod connection . Looks like it was disconnected during renovations.
I'll install a new rod , hopefully this solves the issue
Click to expand...
As Roger stated a grounding electrode has nothing to do with the issue. You said that there is 5 to 6 amps on the ground wire, what is the function of this "ground wire"?
 
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winnie

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Occupation
Electric motor research
To have 5 A flowing on the 'ground wire', you must already have a pretty good grounding electrode.

So good, in fact, that I am suspicious that the 'ground wire' is properly identified.

An underground well case is probably a very good grounding electrode.

Jon
 
don_resqcapt19

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
OBONE said:
Tks everyone. I checked the grounding there's no ground rod connection . Looks like it was disconnected during renovations.
I'll install a new rod , hopefully this solves the issue.
Click to expand...
A connection to earth will never solve any electrical problem. In some cases it may mask the problem, but it will never solve the problem.
 
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